A Prayer for Revival and Reformation

Great and honourable Father, we come to You through the precious Name of Jesus. You established us as Your Church, to do Your Will on the earth and to make disciples of all men. Attached to this mission, You granted us the power of Your Spirit, that we may prevail against the gates of hell. We come to You today asking for Your mercy and forgiveness.

We have each gone our way and neglected Your Great Commission. You told us to be in the world, yet not of it; we have made ourselves comfortable here. Trading in the wares of the world, we have made enlargening our barns for survival our primary activity and neglected to rely on Your Providence. Our hearts do not beat in sync with Yours any longer and we have become cold and distant. We no longer have Your passion for the lost and perishing people who do not know You. Rich in the treasures of this world, we think we have need of nothing. However, we are really blind, poor and wretched! The love of God is not in our hearts, neither love for our own brethren.

Lord, open to us the treasures of Your Word that we may no longer be poor. We ask you for gold tried in fire, and eye-salve to take away our blindness and hypocrisy.  Quicken our cold hearts with the fire of Your love, that we may not be Christians in name only but with all our hearts. We no longer want to be just followers and fans; we want to be disciples for that is what You intended. We no longer want to be just hearers of Your Word. We have been so for centuries. We want to apply Your Word practically in our lives. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, for we have none of our own and so we come to You, the fountain of Righteousness.

Lord, You promised that if we asked anything in Your Name in accordance with Your Will, that You would do it. We ask for a revival in our spirits and a reformation in our hearts. Create in us clean hearts, and renew in each of us a right spirit. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may honour You in the world today, proclaiming Your great Name always. Help us to love our neighbor, both in and outside the Church. We have mostly been a reproach to Your great Name for we have tried to do things in our own strength. We have neglected Your blueprint and Your great wisdom and tried to cut corners in doing the work You appointed us. Help us to be no longer a reproach, but to bring glory to Your Name. Forgive us.

Revive us again! Help us as a Church to work in unity with one another, and to use the gifts You have given each of us so that we may finish our appointed work of taking Your Message to the whole world. We have lost our authority, because we have not lived the Gospel. Lord Jesus, when You were on this earth, You spoke with great authority because You are the Word personified. Help us to be the same, to speak with great authority,  the authority You have given us.

Revive our hearts and reform our lives, that we as a Church and as Your servants, may bring great honour to Your Name (Matt 7:29). AMEN

Revival and Reformation Part 3: Pray and Move!

We have examined the meaning of revival, and last week we learned that revival is something that we should thirst for like the parched desert soil thirsts for the evening dew. This week’s message will deal with some of the more practical aspects of revival.  Jesus said in Mk 11:24 that whatsoever things you desire, when you pray believe you have received them and they shall be yours. Obviously, they won’t be yours if you ask contrary to God’s Will, but as long as you ask according to His Will, you will receive what you ask for. This is the promise of God to all those who believe in Him.

“How am I to know God’s Will?” you may ask. One thing is certain. Asking for revival is ALWAYS in accordance with God’s Will. Asking for His Holy Spirit is ALWAYS according to His Will, for He desires to fill everyone who believes in Him with His overcoming, powerful Spirit so that they may work His works in this world, bringing glory to the Father.  Read Luke 11:11-13; it clearly says so. So then, are we asking for revival? When we ask, do we BELIEVE that we have received what we ask for? That is the essence of faith. If we do not ask in faith, we ask amiss. Our prayers hit the ceiling and fall unanswered to the ground and we are not revived.

What does it mean to ask in faith? What does it mean to believe you have received what you ask for? It means that when you come out of your prayer closet having earnestly sought the Lord for spiritual revival, do not walk as those who are spiritually dying. Walk in newness of life, with a newfound purpose, with renewed vigour for the mission God has in store for you. Walk like those on the road to Emmaus whose hearts burned with spiritual revival as Jesus opened to them the Holy Scriptures. Walk as if you have something to offer the world, because you do! You have work to do. You have Gospel Truth to share. With God on your side, it is not a “mission impossible.”

When I first started driving, my mother would yell to me as I reversed out of the driveway. “Move and turn!” she would yell. “Move and turn!” Why? It was because I had a car without a power-assisted steering so if I didn’t let out the clutch a little and give the car a bit of throttle to allow it to move while I maneuvered the steering wheel, it made it that much harder to turn. When I allowed the car to move and turned the wheel simultaneously, it was easier to turn. So it is with our prayers too. God does not want us on our knees forever asking, but doing nothing. He wants us to demonstrate our faith in His power to answer by believing in Him, and what better way to do that than to start acting like a bunch of revived people? Pray and move! That is one of the secrets to starting a revival. If everyone did this, very soon, the whole Church would be revived and the effects would spill over into the wider community. If we spent half the time we normally spend on bickering, complaining and judging others on earnest prayer and fasting and then started working the works of the revived, we wouldn’t need the thrill of sporadic revivals any longer.

We would be like the tree planted by the rivers of living water!

"Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."-Mark 11:24

"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? "-Luke 11:11-13


"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."- 2 Chron 7:14

Revival & Reformation Part 2-Are you THIRSTY for revival?

Last week we focused on what it means to be revived. Now we can explore our readiness for revival. Is the church of God ready for revival? Are we just throwing around the word casually? What are the conditions necessary for a revival?

Taking an earnest look at the state of affairs in Christendom reveals that many churches are not ready for revival. The members do not seek it with all their hearts. They are too preoccupied with the cares of this world: the socials, the parties, work and family affairs. There is precious little time devoted to prayer, fasting and asking God for revival. We are currently in a spiritual drought, yet we do not realize it. The deer pants for streams of water in the dry places, but God’s children do not thirst for the living water only He is able to supply.  (Ps 42:1)

The theme of our Church is Revival & Reformation. We have started the 777 Initiative. How many of us have taken this seriously? It’s one thing to outwardly proclaim that we desire revival and reformation; it’s quite another to demonstrate that we REALLY are thirsty for it. How many of us have taken the quarterly times designated by our Conference for fasting and prayer seriously? I was dismayed to read a recent article by a member of our worldwide church, which revealed that this condition of spiritual lethargy is a worldwide phenomenon. She wrote that in her church, most of the church members had forgotten that they should be heeding the call to fast, pray, and earnestly ask the Lord for the latter rain.  Instead, the church held a luncheon on the designated days and became a place of temptation and a snare to those who had remembered and wished to seek God with all their hearts.

What has happened to us? We seem to have grown cold and lost our first love. We no longer possess the zeal of the early church to embrace revival and submit to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible predicted that in the last days, this would happen.  The question is, are we going to let ourselves continue to drift in this condition or are we going to seek the Lord and beg of His mercy so that He may lift us out of the spiritual quagmire that we have fallen into? This phenomenon is not seen in countries where persecution is at its zenith; perhaps we who enjoy religious liberty have taken this precious gift for granted. The Lord does not approve of our “lukewarm”, comfortable, self-focused Christianity. It is time to go on our knees and seek the Lord with all our hearts.

“On the other hand, there are some who, instead of wisely improving present opportunities, are idly waiting for some special season of spiritual refreshing by which their ability to enlighten others will be greatly increased. They neglect present duties and privileges, and allow their light to burn dim, while they look forward to a time when, without any effort on their part, they will be made the recipients of special blessing, by which they will be transformed and fitted for service.”—The Acts of the Apostles, 54. {ChS 43.4} 

References: Christ’s Object Lessons 303-304; Rev 3:14-20; Ps 42; The Acts of the Apostles 54

Revival & Reformation Part 1-What is a Revival?

In the times we live in, churches around the world are focusing on revival and reformation. Since we are praying for revival, let us explore the significance of what it means to be revived.

The word “revive” means to quicken, awaken or revitalize something that is close to death. He who is spiritually dead can therefore not benefit from a revival. Revivals are for the house of God, for His children who have become estranged from Him and whose hearts no longer burn with fervent love for the Lord. For those outside the house of God, more than a revival is necessary i.e. something more akin to a spiritual resurrection. Only Christ can take the spiritually dead and make them live again; that is the miracle of being “born again.”

Charles H Spurgeon wrote in his sermon entitled, “What is a revival?” that revivals should be the exception rather than the norm in a healthy church environment. He wrote as follows: “The tree planted by the rivers of water loaded with fruit needs not excite our anxiety for its revival, for its fruitfulness and beauty charm every one. Such should be the constant condition of the sons of God. Feeding and lying down in green pastures and led by the still waters they ought not always to be crying, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me." Sustained by gracious promises and enriched out of the fullness which God has treasured up in his dear Son, their souls should prosper and be in health, and their piety ought to need no reviving. They should aspire to a higher blessing, a richer mercy, than a mere revival. They have the nether springs already; they should earnestly covet the upper springs. They should be asking for growth in grace, for increase of strength, for greater success; they should have out-climbed and out-soared the period in which they need to be constantly crying, "Wilt thou not revive us again?" For a church to be constantly needing revival is the indication of much sin, for if it were sound before the Lord it would remain in the condition into which a revival would uplift its members.”

In Jer 17:8, we find the condition of one who trusts in the Lord and not in men. “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." -Psalms 1:1-3

Scripture & other refs: Jeremiah 17:8, Psalms 1:1-3, Excerpts taken from"What is a Revival?" by C H Spurgeon, Dec 1866 edition of The Sword & Trowel.